Unsolicited submissions currently not being accepted.

Are you a children’s picture book author?

Then we want to hear from you.

Unlike most children’s publishers we welcome unsolicited submissions for all areas of our young children's list.  We specialise in early learners and children’s picture books for ages 3 – 8. 

We do not accept submissions for more capable/older readers, chapter books or novels. 

We accept submissions for fiction and non fiction as long as the subject matter is relevant and appropriate for ages 3 – 8.  We are particularly interested in subject matter for reluctant readers and use of high frequency words.

Your submission must be all your own work and you will be held liable for any copyright infringements.

Submissions guidelines

Word length maximum 1500 words.

All submissions must be in English.

Complete the online form (click here) and attach a single word document (.doc file format) containing your work. We do not accept hard copy submissions. Please ensure your file is a '.doc' word file not a '.dat' or '.pdf'.  Any other format other than '.doc' files will be disregarded without acknowledgement.

Please provide the information below in the email. 

• Word length (max 1500).  Most picture book texts are between 600 - 800 words. 
• Number of pages
• Target age range (s) (0-5, 3-5, 4-7, 6-8)
• Overview of story – no more than 150 words
• Contact e mail for reply.

Your manuscript should be saved according to the following format:
date of submission as ddmmyy_surname_firstname_title of book.doc
For example:
190308_Jackson_Mary_Fairystory.doc

We cannot stress enough the need to present your work professionally.  Please take time to ensure you have proof read your work so that it stands the best possible chance with our slush pile readers.

Please ensure your work is in Arial or Times New Roman, font size 12.  Please indicate where page breaks should be.

That’s it.  We do not need to know whether you have been published before or not, whether you are a professional or are doing this for a hobby, whether you have had hundreds of rejections or this is the first time you have submitted work.  We will assess your work on its own merits.

What we are interested in is finding talented authors that can write a fantastic children’s story.   Please don’t waste your or our time giving us any other information.  If we love your story then we will get to know each other.

If your work is accepted we may employ a professional translator for your work to ensure accurate translation to other languages.

How Do We Assess Your Book?
Your manuscript will be assessed by two independent readers who will assess your submission against the following criteria.  At this stage do not need to include any ideas for illustration.  If your work is accepted we will contact you about this.
These are the questions we ask ourselves when we read your manuscript

• Do we love this book? 
• Do we love it enough to invest several thousands of pounds and months of our working life publishing it?
• Will children around the world love this book?
• Do we think this book will sell? 
• Do we believe the content to be easy to translate to other languages? 
• Is this a book that will come alive with illustrations?
• Do we have a gap in our current offering for this subject matter?
• Is this manuscript presented in a polished format.

So if you impress us with a fresh and exciting story or non-fiction work that we love you will be accepted.  Simple.

What Happens If I am Accepted?
If we decide that your manuscript meets our criteria, we contact you, by e mail, to ask if you want to be published by us.  If your answer is yes then we will send you a copy of the contract. 
Our basic terms are;

• the author will receive 30% of all gross sales of the book
• the author will not contribute financially to the development of the book
• all costs associated with proofreading, editing, illustrating and publishing the book will be paid for by EBooks4Kidz Ltd
• the author retains the moral rights of the written words
• EBooks4Kidz Ltd retain copyright of the illustrations and the eBook format, and any associated materials
• there are no advances paid to the author – all payments are based on sales of the book. These are paid on a quarterly basis on set dates by the end of the following month.

Following receipt of the signed contract we will proof-read your manuscript and assign an editor and give you the feedback from our reading team who selected your work.  The editor may make suggestions to further improve your work.  Where possible you will be consulted on any changes, however, we rely on their professional judgement.

We want to have fun creating the book and want you to enjoy it too. We will send you initial suggested illustrations and where possible a draft of the book near completion.  We do rely on our editorial team to understand page layout and our IT team to do the ‘techy’ stuff that generates the final product.  But you also have to be happy too.  After all this is your book.  You wrote it.  So we want to have you as part of our team.  If you do have a preferred style for illustrations then we will review these after receipt of contract.  Just send us images of preferred styles and we may try to accommodate this.

FAQs

Why Do You Only Publish On-line?

We are structured the same way as a traditional publishing house.  We have our own team of readers, editors, illustrators etc.  However we are a virtual company employing the best talent from across the globe.  We believe there are a number of unique benefits to publishing on-line;

• We do not have the high over-heads of a traditional publishing house holding stock
• We make our books interactive to help children learn
• We support children’s understanding of words and fluency
• We get books to market quickly 
• We translate books to other languages easily so they can be marketed across the world
• We believe in the power and ever increasing trend of internet usage across the world
• We do not destroy any trees in publishing our books, nor have environmental impact due to transportation and shipping.

Do I have to have an agent?

No.  We aim to publish talented authors you do not need an agent.  We know how hard it is to be accepted by an agent or publisher.  We want to change that. 

I have an agent.  Can I still submit?

You should check the contract you have with your agent.  You may need to specifically ask the agent if you are submitting work they have rejected.  We don’t know what your contract is so you must check.

I am an agent.  Can I submit?

We issue the contract directly to the author.  If you represent an author and wish to submit their work you will need to agree how your agent fees are paid directly with the author.

What Happens if I am Rejected?

Sadly, we cannot accept every manuscript that is submitted to us.  If you saw some of the submissions we’ve had you would understand why!!!  Unfortunately there are a lot of manuscripts out there that are not ready for publishing.  We choose our authors very carefully based on whether they fit with our overall mission of helping children learn to read and to develop a love of books.  We don’t want anyone buying a book from us and being disappointed.

Although you may be rejected and this will no doubt be a let down for you, please do not think that your work will not be published by another publisher (we all make mistakes – just look at J. K. Rowling with Harry Potter which was rejected by a number of publishers before it was accepted!) You may be one of those authors who is rejected by us but goes on to success elsewhere.  So send us your manuscript – we read every one.

Although we have a high volume of submissions unlike some other publishers we will endeavour to give you personal feedback.  This is not a full editorial critique but it reflects that we value that you have chosen to take the time to submit your work to us.  Our business is to spend our valuable time making sure the books we are publishing receive our attention, please bear with us if we take a little while to get back to you.  We aim to deal with all submissions in less than 2 months.  If your work is rejected we will not enter into further correspondence about that piece.

Ready?  Click at the bottom of the page to send us an email

Do you pay an advance to the author?

No.  All income will be based on the proceeds from the book.  If your book sells you get paid.  If your book sells we get paid.  If your book doesn’t sell neither of us get paid and we bear the costs of bringing it to the market.  You will be paid 30% of all sales from the book. 

Do you charge any fees to the author?

Absolutely not.  That would make us a vanity publisher and we are not a vanity publisher.  If we accept your submission we will pay for all costs relating to publishing and marketing your book.

Where do you market?

By the very nature of what we do we market on-line.  However we also use other formats such as media awareness and PR.

Do I have to have my work assessed by a critique agency?

No and we will not recommend anyone to do this for you.  Do make sure that you have properly proof-read your work. If you do want to send your work to a critique agency do choose a reputable one.  It can be helpful in giving you some guidance but we cannot recommend any firms for this service as this could be construed as a conflict of interest.  If your manuscript is accepted we will have it professionally proof-read and edited.

I have self published a book, can I send it to you?

Not if this is in current distribution.  If your manuscript is accepted we will allocate an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) therefore the book must not be available in any other published format.

How much can I expect to get paid?

This is entirely dependent on how many books of yours we sell.  You receive 30% of all gross sales. We are a global business and are expanding the number of languages that we publish books in.  The world is your audience.

Will you translate my book?

We will be working on translating many of our books and our website.  We cannot do this for books in rhyme at the moment so if your book is in rhyme these are targeted at English speaking countries.

Can I submit more than one manuscript?

Yes but please only send one manuscript per submission.

Why do you only accept submissions in English?

Currently our readers and editors are employed from English speaking countries.

Can I talk to someone?

Our business is based on-line.  We deal with all our correspondence via email. If you have a manuscript then send it in.  You will receive an automatic response in the first instance to let you know that we have got your submission.  The next time you hear from us will be an acceptance or rejection.  If we want to publish you then we will enter into communication with you. 

How do I know my work is safe with you?

We are not in the business of stealing work.  We want to help talented writers to get their work published.

Ready?  Click below to send us an email.